The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1887-10-30
WOMEN OF OTHER LANDS.
THE EEMhLE LABoRERs OF O0NTzNEN-
TAI EUROPE AND THE EAST.

diering-A Woman HeFso In Austria
Field Workers In the 0rient-Hn Japan.
One Of the things that impresses the Amer
ican globo trotter as singular at flrst Is the
spectacle OF women working in tho fields He
secs this in almost every country In tho
world but his own; In every country. in fact.
but the United States and England and her
colonies. Leaving out tho English-speakinR
race. 1t is quite safe to assert that moro than
half the drudgery Of farm work Is done by wo-
mon. Chivalrous and gallant by nature. and.
moreover, used to treating and seeing others
treat the fair sex with o homage little short OF
worship at homo. pity for the women is not
mingled with feeling OF contempt for those
who are responsible for their degradation to
beasts Of burden. 1t Ia difficult for tho Ameri-
can to regard as civilized nations that exact
from their women such work as hod carrying
and hoeing fields Of turnips.
One begins to see somo women ut work In
tho fields ss soon as no strikes the Continent
OF Europe. With big clumsy wooden shoes
and COARSE blue gowns on. the rosy-cheeked
peasant women OF Normandy take to manual
labor outdoors as naturally as ducks take to
tho water Perohance their husbands are all
away on military duty, leaving the whole care
OF the little farm on the wifes shoulders till
their return. Instead OF repining at this hard
life one can hear them singing merrily as larks
about the fields as they toll or chatting gayly as
they stroll homeward in groups in the evening.
About the hardest working women I saw
anywhere were Ia Wurtemberg and Bavaria,
and on through Austria Hungary. The up
lands Of WurtemberR are sunproductive. and
REQUIRE no end OF labor and manuring to raise
anything like decent crops. The fields were
swarminS with women and children. Some
were gathering stones and piling Thorn in
heaps by the roadside, some were hoeing
ploughing with oxen. distributing manure, or
carrying huge bundles OF green stun homo on
their heads to feed to the mich COWS. The
custom In Germany is to out and carry homo
feed for cattle instead Of letting them craze.
Many women were at work on the roads.
breaking heaps Of fints for macadamizing. or
repairing bitches with pick and shovel. Now
and then passeda man, but he was invaria-
bly, trimming an apple tree, tinkering at some
farm implement, or attending to other business
than the heavy drudgery Of the fields. All OF
the latter seemed to fall to the share Of the
women. Under these conditions I expected to
find them long-faced. and down-trodden In
demeanor: instead Of which, they seemed to be
quite tho reverse. Laughter and song seemed
to be their normal condition. and merry
peals OF laughter and bandinage would
greet my appearance on tho road with the BIZ
cycle. Though working like cattle in the fields,
and going home at night to MUNICH coarse
slice Of rye bread and an onion for supper. they
were undoubtedly contented and happy with
their lot. The bliss that comes Of ignorance
left no room for discomfort by drawing COM
parsons. These peasant women Of Germany.
passing their hard lives in manuring stony rye
fields and making macadam roads, are no moro
conscious Of degradation than are the COWS
they milk and drive to the plough.
Matters seem to get worse instead Of better
as one passes eastward into Austria. In
tho smiling villages and towns Of the
upper Danubian provinces one sees the
women in short dresses and bare feet
carrying bricks and mortar up the lad
ders Of new buildings and wheeling bar
rows Of dirt from the excavations. AL
sense Of gallantry, or even Of common defer
ence to womankind, seems to be confined on
ttrely to the upper classes. and to the moro re-
fined elements Of the larger cities. doubt
very much II the worst side Of slavery In this
country ever presented scenes moro revolving
to the average American mind than what may
be witnessed any day in an Austrian country
town. Girls Of 16 or IS. who ought to be at
school, or. at any rate. engaged in domestic
pursuits. are doing the work Of bricklayers'
coarse dresses that barely cover their naked
extremities to the knees.
the brutal and bsotted assamptiop that the
masculine biped Is in every way their superior
woman laying bricks. or fashioninR block Of
ss ss ss 1 Ss ass. & e. sSsss
who wrote home and told his wife that America
g at for - All
men up thore to do ar the worruk;
messed to a cart. One often meets big work
q but Il to but
Woman actually harnessed up on the road.
aona VIE
load o. hre-wo9d faggots while her husband
tached to one Of the shafts. and whenever hill
Or Sr rouEh sPot was enGpunteEed
%6sa iI$ssy REACHED smooth; sSsi ssosns sEsiS:
distance to ind s wheher they
usual attention from other people. Nobody
inferred that the sight was s nothinS aneom
mon II that country. A scene that would have
into reauston inv IN very shor order
In Tie Tin In
Danpbian meadows, and saw, the women not
merely tossing and raking the hay, but swing
husband. brother. and father. No gentle OF
courteous consideration was anywhere shown
hs fan' shse
was any, rart OF the work moro like dull, grind
ing drudgery, more destitute OF interest, than
any other, women and not mon were doing 1t.
Cn the big dMcal estates Of Hungary. l saw
scenes that eclpsed. If possible. even those OF
Austria. Hungary is a land OF largo estates
and pauper;pald laborers. rather than OF small
proprietors like France and parts Of Germany.
Instead. therefore, of women scattered singly
about little family holdings, one sees them
OF overseers Nothing reminded me so much
Of the popular conception Of the, palmy days Of
slavery In the Southern States. thun these long
files OF Hungarian peasant women passing
through the, Fields with clumsy hoes Every
woman was barefoored and wore a dress that
scarcely descended to the knees. so as to allow
the free use of limbs for getting about. AS they
passed slowly across the fields sometimes as
many As u hundred In n row. with two or three
male oyerseers Watching the line from few
falling rising and falling. without intermlsson
at every forward stride, 1t was difficult to i'm
agine them anything else than gangs of white
slaves. They were free enough. however, as
freedom goes in these countries. and were
probably earning twelve cents q day each.
Sometimes when not more than q couple OF